


SNK Musical Theater AU

by TransLunar



Category: Shingeki no Kyojin | Attack on Titan
Genre: M/M, Multi, Musical theater AU, Student Eren, pianist levi
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-12-07
Updated: 2015-12-06
Packaged: 2018-05-05 10:03:48
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,506
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5371229
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TransLunar/pseuds/TransLunar
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Title subject to change.</p><p>Basically I couldn't sleep because this headcanon was running wild in my brain. Modern AU where Eren is a musical theater major who has the hots for the school's accompanist, Levi. </p><p>A lot of the way Eren's school experience works is based on my one semester as a music major. ;)</p>
            </blockquote>





	SNK Musical Theater AU

**Author's Note:**

> I don't have any more of this written yet, but it is swimming around in my head. Whether or not I get around to writing it out is based on the results this chapter produces.

Eren was a freshman musical theater major with a minor in vocal performance. Needless to say, he was already very busy, and while he didn’t get the best grades, he couldn’t ever be faulted for not trying harder than expected. In his mind, he was making up for his lack of natural talent by getting an average of five hours of sleep at night and barely having a social life that didn’t involve doing homework together with his roommate and adopted sister.

In all honesty, he was just waiting for auditions for the fall season show. It would be his first performance out of high school. Shinganshina High was a small school, so he always got the lead simply because he was lucky enough to be handsome. But Maria University was a lot bigger than Shinganshina High, and there were a lot of other musical theater students looking for the same parts he was: and most of them were his seniors.

One thing Eren wasn’t comfortable with was not knowing who his competition was. He didn’t have any classes with the upperclassmen and never happened to run into them in the hallway or stumble upon them in the recital hall or practice rooms. He hoped that meant they didn’t practice a lot, since he spent most of his spare time in said practice rooms.

Once the first week had passed and Eren finally started to feel settled into the routine of going to class, he had his first vocal lesson with the school accompanist. And it was very distracting. Professor Shadis was his instructor, which was strange in itself. The man didn’t look like he would be one to sing, but here he was, doing vocal warm ups while staring daggers into Eren’s soul. Eren’s mind was torn between keeping an eye on his instructor and staring at the accompanist.

Shadis introduced him as Levi, a hired on pianist for recitals and musicals. And he was hot. He looked to be in his mid-twenties, but Eren had a feeling he was older based on his skill. He made sight reading a difficult classical piece look easy. He was also very quiet, Eren noticed. He didn’t speak at all through the whole lesson, simply played from where Shadis instructed. Eren was slightly mortified that his first impression was singing badly on songs he didn’t know yet. But he just told himself that this was always the first impressions Levi got, considering his job.

After the lesson, as Eren gathered his music and tried to organize it in his folder, Shadis left completely, probably to get to another lesson, leaving the two in the recital hall alone. Eren couldn’t help but turn a little red, giving himself a paper cut on accident as he was suddenly very clumsy. His heart almost stopped when he heard Levi’s voice.

“When do you want to schedule your practice lessons?”

Eren stared over at the man who was still sitting at the piano, pencil in hand, hovering over a piece of paper in his binder, and eyes on him for the first time. That’s right, they had two lessons a week: one with Shadis and one alone to practice.

“Um…”

Good one, Jaeger.

“W-What times do you have open?” Eren asked, simply because he was trying to remember his class schedule.

“Other than morning sessions like this, you’re the first one to schedule your time slot,” Levi said and Eren’s eyes zeroed in on his Adam’s apple as it moved. “Is there a particular day that’s less busy for you?”

“Tuesdays,” Eren said. “I only have one class on Tuesdays, in the morning.”

“Aren’t you a lucky one?” Levi said, almost sounding like he wasn’t being serious. Eren could never tell with sarcasm these days. “So do you want to put it after your class so you don’t have to make multiple trips out of the dorm?”

“Yeah, sure,” Eren said. “That’s great, actually. My class gets out at 10:45.”

“Then we’ll shoot for eleven,” Levi said and wrote it down. He frowned at his pencil for a moment. “How do you spell your last name?”

“Like the alcohol,” Eren said. “It’s German.”

“Is it?” Levi said, though Eren knew this comment was dry. There was no way to mistake that.

“So, I’ll see you Tuesday?” Eren asked, suddenly eager to get out of the room.

“Or sooner,” Levi said. “You’re in choir, right? You’re going to be seeing me every day of the week.” And with that, Levi stood, gathered his notebook, slid his pencil behind his ear and left.

All Eren’s mind registered was that Levi was shorter than him. He slammed his head into the music stand that held his binder and groaned to himself. This was worse than a high school crush because it was spearheaded by looks. When he’d crushed on people in high school, he’d had previous encounters and even witnessed them growing up from childhood, so there was never a huge sexual element to the attraction. But Levi. Oh, Levi would plague Eren’s dreams and bed sheets.

He felt a brief moment of pity for Armin. The blonde would have to deal with Eren using the bathroom for extended periods of time, that much was certain.

And just as Levi had said, Eren spent at least an hour with him every weekday. Monday, Wednesday, and Friday had him sitting practically right next to the piano in choir where he was severely distracted watching Levi’s hands move on the keys. They looked so strong. And nimble. Eren was glad for the broken heating in the building that made him wear his hoodie inside that was long enough to cover the most awkward boner he’d ever had, by far. Though part of him was sure Levi had seen him shift his legs to cover it, the pianist hadn’t said anything, so neither did he. 

On Tuesday, Eren met with Levi in a smaller practice room to go through things from his lesson with Shadis. The room was so small the only place Eren had to stand was practically against the wall. It was originally intended to be a place to practice piano, so the space only accommodated the pianist comfortably.

“Stop cowering in the corner,” Levi said after about thirty seconds of the first song. “You sound like shit.”

“I’m sorry,” Eren said. He carefully took a step away from the wall, but doing so had sent the binder in his hands into the space Levi’s head had been occupying. Levi had ducked out of the way just in time, but he made a hiss of distaste. “I’m sorry.”

“Is that all you know how to say?” Levi said, surprisingly calm as he lifted the binder from Eren’s hands and set it on the piano, closed. “Read over my shoulder.” Eren’s heart was beating too hard or him to answer. He took another slight step closer so he could get the letters on the page into focus. He tried so very hard not to notice that Levi smelled like soap. Not even a particular scent, just straight soap. Like the kind his grandma had in her bathroom and he could never seem to find in stores. Not that Levi smelled like an old lady.

“Oi.”

“Sorry,” Eren said, realizing he’d missed the intro and hadn’t begun singing when he was supposed to. “Sorry, I spaced out.” He smacked himself on the cheeks a little and tried to focus again.

At the end of the first song, Levi simply said “good” and turned the page to the next song.

“Aren’t we going to do it again?” Eren asked.

“Let’s get through them all first. If you need more time on a different one, we could run out of time if we spend too much of it on one you’re already fine on.”

“I guess that makes sense,” Eren said. “But I guess I just feel like I’m not good at any of them yet.”

“You’re better than you think,” Levi said. “But yes, you do have a lot of work to do. Just think about this. How long until your recital?” Eren blinked.

“I don’t even know.”

“Precisely. It’s in a couple months. You have time. Right now, we’re focusing on major problems and learning the song itself. We work on fine tuning later.”

Eren felt better. Everything Levi had said was practical and from a technical standpoint, but it had made him feel better about the whole thing. He needed to focus on the long term, not on perfecting it now. He needed to pace himself.

At the end, Eren was standing beside the piano as he copied some notes they’d made on Levi’s music onto his own for when he practiced by himself. When he finished, Levi immediately stood, bringing them awfully close to each other. Eren’s breathing stilled and he gripped the piano tightly when Levi brushed past him to the door with an “I’ll see you tomorrow.”

“Yeah,” he managed to respond and not be rude. Levi was gone. Eren sat on the piano bench and rested his head in his hands. He had let his guard down because Levi had calmed him, and the touch reignited the fire straight to his groin. He could only be thankful it hadn’t happened during their lesson or he would have had no excuse.

He stared at a box of tissues that was sitting on the corner of the piano for a good minute before locking the door and spending the next twenty minutes with his hand and his imagination.

On Thursday, Eren had his lesson with Shadis. It was surprisingly difficult to keep his hormones under control. He felt fifteen again, and it sucked. He wound up having to keep his eyes trained on the music in front of him and nothing else or he always wandered to Levi’s face or his hands. Those hands would be the death of him.

Ever since Eren realized he was attracted to boys, he had a thing for hands. Strong hands and long fingers were so sexy and Levi’s hands were the perfect definition of what turned Eren on.

Needless to say, he got in trouble for spacing out a couple times. He’d taken to wearing his hoodie around his waist when he wasn’t fully wearing it just in case his mind slipped. He apologized several times, but still got his knuckles smacked with a yardstick. A brief thought that that particular practice was way outdated flew through his mind, but he immediately felt he deserved it.

For the first time, Levi and Eren departed the room at the same time. The practice room had been at the end of a hallway so they had to take the same path for a while. Eren was watching his feet as he walked, still ashamed of his body’s behavior. It was because of this that he ran into the man he’d been subconsciously following when he stopped, facing him. Eren took a step back.

“Sorry.”

“Do you always space out so much?” Levi asked, seemingly scrutinizing Eren’s face very hard.

“I don’t think so,” Eren said. “I’ve just been a little out of it lately.” It wasn’t a lie, but it wasn’t the whole truth either.

“You better figure out what’s causing it and deal with it,” Levi said sternly. “Auditions for the show are tomorrow. Do you know what you’re singing?” Eren’s face paled.

“I forgot about it,” he admitted quietly. Levi clicked through his teeth and glanced at his watch. 

“You’re done with class for the day, right?”

“Yeah,” Eren said, part of him really glad that Levi had remembered.

“Do you even know what the show is?” Levi asked, as he headed for the music office.

“Of course I know that,” Eren said, taking the chance to steal a glance at the poster for it hanging on the wall. As he answered, he grew excited. “We’re doing Les Mis!” He gasped. They were doing his favorite musical. Oh curses, he hoped he would get a lead, but the odds were not in his favor. He practically skipped after Levi and into an office. It took him all of three seconds to realize this was Levi’s office. “I didn’t know accompanists got their own office.”

“I got to have a place to keep all my shit,” Levi said. Eren was slightly taken aback by the vulgarity, not because it was vulgar, but because a person with a title in the school had said it.

“Well, it’s very… tidy,” Eren said, glancing around. It was meticulous. He watched Levi put his practice binder away and pulled another thicker one from the shelf. Eren saw the title of the show on the front. “Are you going to help me practice or something?”

“What does it look like I’m doing?” Levi asked and rolled his eyes. “Do you know what song you want to do?”

“Empty Chairs,” Eren immediately spit out. He never knew why, but he’d always had a particular connection with that song.

“You sure?” Levi asked. “It’s not exactly your range, is it?”

“I can sing it,” Eren said, eyes practically glowing with determination.

“I’ll be the judge of that.”

Eren soon learned that Levi was a force to be reckoned with. He probably learned more about singing for theater in half an hour than he had in his entire life. For the first time in his life, his throat hurt from singing too hard. Levi finally told him he was ready and ushered him out of his office with a few lemon honey tea bags to help his throat and a list on a post-it of instructions for taking care of his voice.

Eren entered his dorm room looking like a schoolgirl in love and Armin just stared at him as if he was completely done with the world.

“At least you don’t have a raging boner today,” he said as a quip. Eren immediately blushed.

“Shut up,” he said. “He’s perfect, okay? Every moment I spend in his presence only confirms that theory more and more.” He told Armin of Levi’s spur-of-the-moment lesson and tips, practically gushing as he rolled around on his bed and stared at Levi’s handwriting on the post-it in his hand. Armin actually chuckled at his best friend.

“Yeah, he’s also probably a lot older than you.”

“Even if he’s older than he looks, age is but a number, and age has been VERY kind to him.”

“What if he’s like fifty?”

Eren paused.

“Then I suddenly have a Daddy kink?”

“Oh good God, Eren!”

“You asked!”

“Even if he did like you back, is he even allowed to date a student?”

Eren’s heart fell. He didn’t like the idea of getting Levi into trouble, and he was pretty sure Levi wouldn’t risk his job if he wasn’t allowed. He shook his head.

“There’s no way he likes me back anyways,” Eren said, flopping over onto his side to face the wall.


End file.
